stevedvd Frontios DVD Review

Frontios DVD Review - starring Peter Davison (Season 21)

The Tardis is drawn to Frontios, a planet in the far future ravaged by meteorite bombardments where the last survivors of the human race fight for survival. However the colonists little realise that the real danger lies not above them from the skies but beneath them under the earth.

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough must convince these paranoid survivors that they are not the enemy and that there is a more sinister threat at work, the Tractators.

Frontios is a funny old story in some ways. It sits in the middle of Season 21, a season best known for its hard edge and unrelenting violence where in at least three of the stories nearly all the main protagonists are destroyed.  Yes this is the era of Eric Saward as Script Editor and that means unless you are one of the Tardis crew your number is probably up...............and even being one of the Doctor’s companions is no guarantee of survival! Ask Adric. However although this story maybe a little more placid than some of its season counterparts there are still some unsettling moments that I will mention later.

Frontios is a good story for the character of the Fifth Doctor. Written by Christopher H Bidmead it re-introduces some of the “stuffy professor stuck in a young man body” aspects that we saw first introduced in Castrovalva, even to the point of the needless glasses making a return!  He is also a Doctor who is very mindful that his role in the events of Frontios should not be mentioned stating “you can tell them I came and went like a summer cloud”. A nice nod to the sometimes forgotton non-interference policy of the Timelords.

We also see Turlough now really settled into the Tardis crew and used prominently again as his rather over the top race memory scene brings the Tractators fully into the story. Tegan is the same as in every story, moaning about pretty much everything although she is not as irritating in this one as usual.

The human survivors are a mixed bag. The young leader Plantagenet is played with nice layers of paranoia and helplessness by Jeff Rawle. Lesley Dunlop, at the beginning of her TV career, is fairly endearing as Lorna and William Lucas is lovable as Range, the only character talking any real common sense and embracing the Doctor’s desire to help.  Peter Gilmore is somewhat wooden as Brazen which even Mark Strickson remarks about on the accompanying documentary.

 

And then there are the Tractators, based on woodlice like creatures that Bidmead noticed in his house at the time. I personally think aesthetically they look ok albeit the costumes restrict movement so much that all they can really do is waddle and turn. A far cry from what was originally envisioned as they were supposed to curl around their victims. Only their leader, the Gravis, is given any character and the rest just shuffle around in the background. However they don’t deserve the lambasting they have received in some quarters and the idea of having monsters suck people through the earth is a good one. So good in fact that Steven Moffat allowed it to be used again!

As I mentioned before there is still some violence in this story. The scene of the retrogrades (the social outcasts of the society) beating up one of their own leaves a bit of a bad taste and the site of Captain Revere’s (the original leader of the colony) cadaver strapped to a mining machine the Tractators are using is particularly gruesome. A more horrific image of further cadavers being used was cut from final transmission as JNT felt it might have gone a little too far.

 

There are some memorable scenes too such as the humans being sucked into the ground by the Tractators and the Tardis being broken up; these remain images from my childhood.  The denouement of the story is also interesting in that the Doctor tricks the Gravis into willing the Tardis back together again. A clever solution in a season all too willing to blow something up or invoke a massacre to create an ending. The soundtrack is also worth a special mention with a haunting quality throughout.

Overall Frontios is a bit of a curiosity. Decent story, quite good characters and a decent monster. And yet is all still falls just a little flat for reasons hard to explain. There just does not seem to be any pacing and therefore the urgency of the threat is not given enough gravitas...or should that be Gravis.

Overall Story Score 6/10

DVD Extras

As usual Peter Davison is always good value on a commentary track, Eric Saward is his usual sardonic self taking veiled pot shots at John Nathan Turner (get over it Eric). Also present are Jeff Rawle, John Gillett who played the Gravis and Dick Mills (Sound Designer). Davison does his usual role of holding it all together with general irreverent humour while never being disrespectful to the programme.

The rest of the extra’s are quite flimsy with even the “Making of...” featurette Driven to Distraction being a somewhat dour affair. Mind you this hardly surprising as it features the story of Peter Arne who was originally cast to play the part of Range who was murdered during the making of this story. 

The other features are those present across all the Doctor Who range such as Photo Gallery, Deleted and Extended Scenes and an Isolated Score track.

DVD Extra’s Score 4.5/10

Frontios Overall Rating 5.5/10 – By no means a classic but if you are a massive fan of the Fifth Doctor you will want to see this as it features a quite different portrayal from Peter Davison than the usual energetic hero with boundless enthusiasm.

stevedvd - The Seeds of Doom - DVD Review

The Seeds of Doom – Starring Tom Baker (Season 13)

The Hinchcliffe/Holmes Years.  Hammer Horror. The Gothic Era. All these well worn terms refer to a period, still relatively early in Tom Baker’s tenure as the Fourth Doctor, that is commonly regarded as the golden age of Doctor Who.

In Phillip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes you had a Producer and a Script Editor who had decided they were going to frighten their audience which was largely made up of children, or in their vernacular “scare the little buggers to death”. They were going to achieve this by using many Hammer horror film pastiches which had been very popular throughout the previous decade. In the case of The Seeds of Doom they clearly chose Day of the Triffids.

The plot is fairly straightforward. A group of scientists discover a pod in the icy climes of Antarctica which they calculate has been buried there for over twenty thousand years. Sure enough the pod opens and infects the scientists who then turn into the Krynoid, an alien carnivore intent on destroying all human life. The Doctor and Sarah have to fight in a race against time to stop the insane Harrison Chase, a wealthy botanist and plant life sympathiser, from helping the Krynoid to achieve its aim.

The Seeds of Doom is often referred to as a classic and this is a term well deserved. The plot is not complicated but the pacing is excellent with the first two parts set in Antarctica and the next four back in England. The guest cast are uniformly excellent with Sylvia Coleridge as the eccentric Amelia Ducat, John Challis as the thuggish lout Scorby and Tony Beckly as the genuinely unnerving Harrison Chase all deserving of special praise.

Lis Sladen is excellent as always but Tom Baker gives a different spin on his incarnation in this story. The Doctor is much more violent in this tale, punching a chauffeur, throwing Scorby around and waving a gun at the evil protagonists. He is also much more short tempered when dealing with the beurocrats at the World Ecology Bureau when they are resistant to take action against Chase, famous telling Sir Colin Thackeray that that a Krynoid takeover will mean the end of everything, “even your pension!”. This gives the Fourth Doctor a fascinating edge which is uncomfortable to watch at times but makes for gripping television because of this.

Overall The Seeds of Doom is a wonderful exciting romp that has images that will long live in the memory such as the first time a character turns into a Krynoid or the full grown alien sat atop Chase’s mansion. Yes even the special effects are pretty good in this one if you squint when the Krynoid is roaming the ground of Chase’s home. They didn’t quite get away with that one.

Overall story rating: 8.5/10   

DVD Extra’s

The commentary track is extremely entertaining with Tom Baker, John Challis, Philip Hinchcliffe, Robert Banks Stewart (Writer) and Roger-Murray Leach (Designer) popping in and out of the recording booth. Joggs Camfield (Director Douglas Camfield’s son) even features giving some insight into the military style operation that his dad used to run on location. Baker and Challis are like two old mates meeting up for the first time in a while and this gives the overall track a friendly, fun and accessible feel.

“Podsock” is essentially “The Making Of....” feature and contains interviews and recollections from all the main players in the show. It is perfectly acceptable but nothing on this one really elevates it above the norm.

We also have the usual Stripped For Action and Now & Then features as well as a Photo Gallery, Coming Soon trailer and Production Information Subtitles.

Two additional features include “Playing the Green Cathedral” which features the music of Geoffrey Burgon which is integral to this story. Most interesting though is “So What Do You Do Exactly?” – a feature looking at Graham Harper who at the time was a Production Unit Manager or PUM. Harper is as excitable as ever and gives an interest insight into the responsibilities and skills needed to carry out that role. It he also displays the sort of knowledge and drive that has made him such an integral part of Doctor Who both old and new. More extras of this nature would be welcome on future releases.

 

Overall Extra’s Rating: 7/10

Seeds of Doom Overall Rating: 8/10 – A must for any Doctor Who DVD enthusiast. Tom Baker and Lis Sladen at their very best together saving the world once more.

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Introducing... Steve's DVDs!

Planet Gallifrey's new writer, Steve, is an amazing expert on all things Who and one particular speciality is his fantastical DVD reviews. Every week, Steve will be travelling back in time to review and rate classic episodes! With the 50th anniversary of the show looming next year, I think it's a great time to revisit what was amazing and what... wasn't.